Infection Control

Infections can run through your kennel as quickly as a child’s cold runs through a day-care center. With proper care, these common feline and canine illnesses typically present little or no problems. But without good management and care, the slightest infection can lead to severe illness, chronic health problems, even fatal pneumonia. Careful preventive health care and sanitation are your best weapons against infections in your shelter. Whether your kennel admits 10 animals per week or 1,000, it’s faced with an ever-changing population. Who knows where all those dogs, cats, kittens, and puppies have been and to what diseases they’ve been exposed? Yours is a daily battle against incoming infectious diseases. The bad news is that you can’t and won’t win every battle against infections in your shelter. But the good news is that you can win the war. No single pill, vaccine, or procedure will eliminate the problem of infection, but many strategies, implemented together, will achieve the goal of infection control. The two major strategies for controlling infections in the shelter are minimizing exposure to the disease-causing viruses and bacteria and strengthening each animal’s immunity to infection. Each strategy is essential. Implementing these two strategies also provides the added benefit of decreasing the incidence of other infectious diseases in your shelter population.

Minimizing Exposure to Infectious Agents

Wouldn’t it be great if you could put up an invisible barrier at the entrance to your shelter through which no viruses or bacteria could pass? Unfortunately, this just isn’t possible. It is impossible to completely eliminate all disease in the shelter because nearly every animal who walks through your front door is potentially–and probably—carrying an infectious disease. Even though you can’t shield the animals in your shelter from viruses and bacteria, you can minimize their exposure to infectious disease. One of the best ways to do this is to have a proper sanitation program in place. Having the proper cleaning protocol is the first line of defense. This would include removing solid waste and urine, washing the area completely, and then disinfecting. Following the directions of the disinfectant is very important to it working properly. Are you sure your employees are using the chemicals properly? And then there is the danger of using chemicals. Not just for the animals, but for your employees as well.

Chemical Free and Safe Infection Control.

EcoVive of Grand Rapids offers a better way of Infection Control. With the use of our Ozone water system, and Sniper Biocide, we can safely clean not only your kennels, but the complete building.

Unlike chemical cleaners, aqueous ozone reverts back to simple water and oxygen with no harmful residues or vapors after its job is done which can then be poured down a drain safely. It is USDA and FDA approved. Ozone water kills viruses and bacteria without the use of chemicals. We also go one step further to provide a layer of protection against the germs that will be introduced by the next animal that comes through your doors. We apply an Antimicrobial treatment to all surfaces that provides a layer of defense. Our Antimicrobial treatment is safe for Humans and Pets, does not leach off, and works through a mechanical process, not a chemical one to kill germs. This will provide protection for up to 60 days.

Chemical free cleaning with aqueous ozone

Unlike chemical cleaners, aqueous ozone reverts back to simple water and oxygen with no harmful residues or vapors after its job is done, which can then be poured down a drain safely without any harmful effects on the environment. The use of ozone as a cleaning and sanitizing agent is not new. Its cleaning and disinfecting properties were discovered, and have been used by scientists since 1886. Ozone naturally occurs in the atmosphere when sunlight or lightning adds an extra oxygen atom to the oxygen molecules in the air. Some of this ozone becomes infused with rain drops during a storm, resulting in aqueous ozone.

XytoBlast aqueous ozone

EcoVive carries the Xytoblast liquid ozone system, that converts normal water into an oxygen-rich solution. As you might already know, oxygen is a fantastic oxidizer that will eat away almost any pollution or contaminant. The process is faster than chlorine products like bleach. While the EPA recommends 8-10 minutes of Dwell Time for cleaning products like bleach, our system kills pathogens 300 times better and 3000 times faster than bleach. Kill the worst pathogens in just 10 seconds, not 8-10 minutes required by the sanitizers you now use.

The Xytoblast liquid ozone system is the new way to clean and sanitize. It is a non-chemical sanitizing system that can eliminate e coli, salmonella, and other bacteria from your facility. Our innovative system is FDA approved for food service areas, but versatile enough to treat nearly any cleaning and sanitizing problem. Our systems destroys the biofilm, pierces the outer membrane of bacteria, virus, and fungi; producing a remarkable level of sanitizing.

Aqueous ozone has many industrial applications, but is primarily used to clean, sanitize, deodorize, and neutralize pollutants. Aqueous ozone is a broad application tool that is considered environmentally-friendly because it is made from oxygen and returns to oxygen once the job is done. FDA has determined that ozone is safe for food preparation areas, which means it is safe nearly everywhere. OSHA considers ozone to be GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe).

Veterinary hospitals, dog kennels, dog daycare centers, pet shops and zoos can all benefit from the use of aqueous ozone. Since liquid ozone acts as a fungicide, virucide, disinfectant and sanitizer, eliminating odors so well that the presence of animals is hardly noticeable. And the best part is liquid ozone is completely safe to use around, or even on animals.

Contact us today so we can help you clean and sanitize the cost efficient, green way. 616-401-9176

Cleaning with Ozonated Water: What you need to know

Some cleaning chemicals used around the home can be hazardous, many may cause acute effects such as respiratory irritation, headache, sneezing, and watery eyes in sensitive individuals or allergy and asthma sufferers.
We at EcoVive advocate Toxic-Free Cleaning. One of the keystones of toxic-free cleaning for the home is using liquid ozone (ozonated water) to replace chemical disinfectants. Ozonated water is perhaps the most misunderstood and maligned technology that we promote, largely because of misunderstandings about ozone in general. Therefore, it has become the subject of undo concern.

To set the record straight, we’ve compiled a list of FAQs about Ozonated water.

How safe is Ozonated water?

Liquid ozone is in fact a strong oxidizer. However, this does not mean that it is corrosive or combustible in aqueous form (i.e. a solution of water). In residential and commercial cleaning applications it is completely safe and won’t harm bare skin. In fact, it may help to kill germs that your hands may have contacted during the cleaning process. Therefore, you don’t need to wear personal protective equipment like gloves as you would with harsh, chemical-based cleaning solutions.

Everyday someone dies from household chemical exposure. In fact, in 2000, cleaning products were responsible for nearly 10% of all toxic exposures reported to U.S. Poison Control Centers, accounting for 206,636 calls. Of these, 120,434 exposures involved children under six, who can swallow or spill cleaners stored or left open inside the home

How does liquid ozone work?

Ozone is a molecule of three oxygen atoms (O3) that is not stable and will breakdown quickly and form radicals having a high oxidation potential. This is what makes it a strong oxidizer and disinfectant. During the oxidation, only one oxygen atom is used for the chemical reaction forming with hydrogen into OH-radicals. Harmless to people, the ozone quickly attacks and eliminates contaminants it comes in contact with. The oxidization reacts with the cell walls of bacteria and viruses the same way hydrogen peroxide and iodine do, causing cell poration of the microbe, which leads to it’s death. The oxidation also removes electrons of molecules, eventually rendering them inert. In this way O3 kills the bacteria that cause odors, viruses that cause illness, as well as breaks down biofilm on surfaces that provide the food for microbes.

How long does ozone last

Ozone in any form has a 15 minute half-life. Which means that In 15 minutes half its solution has lost potency, at which point it is a better cleaning solution than disinfectant for the next few hours.

What residues will liquid ozone leave after it dries?

Contrary to chlorine, which always leaves an oxidation or disinfection byproduct, ozone simply will revert back to oxygen.

How strong is Ozonated water?

Ozone is often compared to bleach and other chlorinated products as they are used in many of the same disinfection applications. When used as such ozone has proven to be 50% stronger and 3000x faster than bleach. In regulated cleaning applications, EPA guidelines direct us toward disinfection with chlorine and ozone. For example, disinfecting with 1 ppm chlorine at a water temperature of 59°F and a pH of 7 requires a dwell time of 75 minutes. The disinfection efficiency achieved will be 99.9 percent. Assuming the same temperature and pH, a concentration of 1 mg/l of liquid ozone water achieves a disinfection efficiency of 99.9% in only 57 seconds. For this example giardia is the parasite used in the water sample because it is one of the most difficult microorganisms to kill. Ozone has many applications for both the residential and commercial customer. We covered cleaning using liquid ozone quite thoroughly by now. Ozone generators can be made for water treatment plants and are in use all over the world. There are applications for it in laundry and dish washing, but mostly in commercial or industrial settings.

Ozone is being used on both public and private pools as a means of disinfecting pool water and is being used in laundry washing systems. Another important application is air purification. As an oxidizer it attacks the bacteria at the cell level, killing them and their aerobic activity, which is what causes odors and areas of potential for infection.

Still have more questions on Ozonated water? Please feel free to contact us for information.